12 Cocktail Glasses Every Home Bar Should Have

When it comes to outfitting your home bar, most people think of spirits first and foremost. While that's not necessarily the wrong instinct, let me ask you this: how do you plan on drinking that? My best guess is that it won't be from the bottle.

So, you need a glass, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. What types of cocktail glasses will you be using? And do you know what shape of cocktail glass you'll need? Should you buy new, or would you prefer to source vintage barware? Once again, we're still hovering above sea level here, because I haven't even asked about these essential bartending tools.

If you're not scared away yet, I'm willing to bet that no one ever has regretted the time and money it takes to outfit their home bar, and my next guess is you won't either. While some things will take more effort to learn than others (like mixing the stuff), shaking up spirits is always a fun way to get schooled.

Lucky for you, I'm offering my expertise as a bartender, so rather than worry about the type of glassware you'll need, you can focus solely on what's going to go inside. Follow my advice and your bar shelf will have any mixologist worth their weight in bitters taking a closer look.

The sleek and sophisticated Nick & Nora glass, whose name was inspired by the dashing protagonists of Dashiell Hammett's 1934 detective novel "The Thin Man," was created by New York City bartender Dale DeGroff and debuted at the Rainbow Room in 1987. While I don't suggest outfitting your home bar to match the Rainbow Room's level, this glamorous cocktail glass is a must-have for its versatility and stylish appeal.

While the Nick & Nora glass is smaller than its counterparts (i.e., the coupe and the martini glass), it has a slightly curved tulip-shaped bowl and a long stem, ensuring that any spirituous elixir served up without ice would work well in this sleek vessel. With a tapered bowl shape that can hold roughly six ounces, the Nick & Nora is more reminiscent of a petite wine glass than a traditional cocktail glass, making it well-suited for iceless cocktails and for sipping single spirits, from aperitifs to cordials and dessert wines. If you're shaking up higher ABV cocktails, a Nick & Nora is an appropriately sized glass for serving high-proof potables, though it works just as well for reverse cocktails.

A worthy receptacle for richer cocktails that are served up, the Nick & Nora is a midway point between the coupe and the martini glass, but its shape and size make it the perfect vessel for versatile imbibing.

An essential glass that often works double duty at home (in the kitchen and the bar), just the name alone can conjure up images of a tall, slender glass that's chock-full of ice. Filled with the tipple of your choice and mixed with a non-alcoholic carbonate, indeed, the highball is a bartender's go-to glassware for a long drink.

A nineteenth-century term that's evolved into mixologists' slang for a tall, refreshing drink, the highball is easily interchangeable with the Collins glass. Thanks to the eponymous Tom Collins cocktail, the Collins glass may be more notable than the highball, but both glasses serve as perfect receptacles for any long drink. Still, when one glass can service all your highball needs, no home bar needs both.

While they're practically the same glass, technically speaking, there are distinctions between the two stalwarts. Simply put, the Collins glass is a narrower, taller version of the highball, which tends to be heavier and a little shorter than the former, making the highball a sturdier option that's lower capacity while still having room enough for ice. While the Collins glass may have greater name recognition, the highball is the best choice for lightening up whiskey with ice and a little effervescence.

No bar worth its weight in booze is complete without the old-fashioned glass. Named after the traditional cocktail formula for crafting an elegant, spirit-forward sipper from a few humble ingredients, the old-fashioned glass occupies the same category of glassware as does the lowball, rocks glass, or even the double old-fashioned glass. While each glass has subtle distinctions in weight and size, the old-fashioned glass is the preferred option as it can hold roughly six to eight ounces, meaning it's viable for drinks with or without ice.

Whereas rocks glasses are smaller, with slightly cambered walls, and double old-fashioned glasses are almost twice as large as the standard old-fashioned glass, the lowball is generally just another name for the tumbler. With a cylindrical shape, a wide, flat bottom, and short, straight walls, the standard old-fashioned glass can accommodate a variety of ice shapes, from spheres to one-inch cubes.

The old-fashioned glass is a workhorse receptacle that can tackle a slew of classics, making it a must-have for your home bar. Take, for instance, the delicious negroni, whose three ounces of spirit, garnished with an orange peel and served over a large cube, nestles comfortably into an old-fashioned glass as naturally as the glassware's titular tipple.

When the coupe first came on the scene, the time was the 17th century and the place was England. While you may envision the wide-bowled stemware holding a pink-tinged boozy Paper Plane, classically, the coupe was meant for champagne. That's because its shallow, wide bowl allowed for the bubbles in champagne to dissipate more quickly, thus accentuating the wine's aromas more fully.

It's still a very sophisticated option to house any luxury sipper, whether bubbly or spirituous. Ever the sturdy glass, the coupe is the structural and sleek base for celebratory champagne towers. In an everyday setting, however, it's more common to see the coupe as a stand-in for the martini glass. That's due to their similarities in size and their stem, although the bowl-shaped coupe is arguably more elegant than the martini glass. So elegant it's the preferred glassware to house the Martinez cocktail — the notorious antecedent to the historic classic martini.

The martini with a twist may be the absolute sleekest and most straightforward means to getting down your vodka or gin in an elegant fashion, but the martini glass itself, while sleek, isn't very ergonomical. Anyone out there who's held a martini glass while engaging in a little cocktail conversation has surely felt their booze slosh overboard one too many times. And while there are more martini cocktail variations than is possible to list here, somehow, there's only one glass out there to share the notorious namesake, and that's the high-stemmed, V-shaped vessel with flared walls.

So, if you can substitute a coupe in its place, and it's not very easy to drink out of in the first place, why would it be worth stocking at your home bar? Well, it's a good question, and the answer, simply put, is because it's historic and a one-of-a-kind showpiece.

While the martini has a long and storied history that touches upon lore as well as fact, the martini glass was invented some four decades after the martini cocktail's debut. In the years since, the martini glass has grown quite large, literally speaking, because it's all too common to see twelve-ounce martini glasses on the market, which is way, way too dangerous — if you care about keeping your shoes clean, that is.

Perhaps the most versatile glass of the bunch, the snifter is perfectly suited for beers, spirits, cordials, and even wine. So versatile, it's common to see snifters being used in breweries and distilleries as its small size, bulbous body, and narrow rim support higher-ABV beers and distillates, such as aromatic IPAs and barley wines.

While the tulip glass is a workable substitute for the snifter in the world of beer and cognac, only the snifter will do when brandy is on the menu. They have a short stem, meaning they're typically held by the bottom of the bowl, making them perfect for swirling and locking in flavorful aromas. If drinking cognac in a snifter glass, the heat from your hand will warm the spirit, muting its intensity. While some will always prefer the tulip glass's longer stem and smaller proportions over the snifter's exaggerated shape, when it comes to drinking cognac, the snifter has been used much longer than its slim counterpart.

Not to be confused with the collectible beer steins you brought back from Munich, the seidel is a must-have glass for your home bar. The seidel is essentially the German term for a classic beer mug, you know, those hefty, thick-walled glasses with a handle so wide you can practically fit your whole hand through it. They can come slightly curved or straight-walled, with or without dimples, and sometimes are adorned with additional designs that nod to the glass's distinct heritage.

While there are a lot of different types of beer glasses, the beer mug is my pick for the at-home beer drinker because it's the perfect vessel for crisp, lower-ABV style beers like lagers and pilsners. Of course, the seidel is perfect for German-style beers as well, especially the maltier brews like Märzenbier and Kellerbier.

Pro tip: keep your beer mugs in the freezer for an extra cold, extra refreshing drink after a long day of yard work — or leisure.

Not to be confused with a one-ounce shot glass, a shooter is long, thin, and can hold two ounces of spirit. So, it can effectively double (pun intended) as a shot glass if that's your style, but it's also a worthy glass for enjoying cordials and after-dinner digestifs.

While I wouldn't dissuade anyone from imbibing spirits straight up, if you are interested in throwing back a shot, the shooter is perfect for stronger, shot-style cocktails like snakebites and peachy, sweet tea shots. Unlike the shot glass, the shooter has straight walls and a long body, which means it can hold more volume and keep the liquid in the glass.

If after-dinner sipping is more your style, the shooter glass can hold an ounce of spirit, and you don't have to worry about spilling. While I wouldn't recommend it for aromatic options that need sufficient air to unlock flavors and soften their alcoholic heat, the shooter is an unfussy option that's easy to hold and even easier to drink from.

While they're almost too obvious to merit mentioning on this list, wine glasses are fixtures in every home for good reason. Whether it's white, red, spritzy, or still, chances are you're about to be sipping out of one of these stalwarts sometime real soon.

In a world where wine glasses come in as many varieties as there are wine varietals, real wine enthusiasts may find my singular selection inane and reductive. And to a certain degree, they're right — for it would be outright blasphemy to tipple a California chardonnay from a flared lip Burgundy glass! But while the shape of your wine glass does matter, if you're opting for an all-purpose glass, it's the material of the wine glass that matters more.

When it comes to the glass's material, crystal is a durable choice that has added elegance, but for a relatively inexpensive, dishwasher-friendly option, glass is the best. A thin rim is what you want to look for in a universal wine glass, and the body can either be bell-shaped or flat-bottomed, to unlock the best of both red and white wines. Think Goldilocks proportions when it comes to the wine glass's body: neither too big nor too small, but just right.

A niche pick for any savvy at-home bartender, the cordial glass is the only viable option for enjoying dessert wines, miniature cocktails, and, well, cordials. Not to be confused with a sherry wine glass, the cordial glass is smaller in height and volume, and often features aesthetic embellishments and ornate designs.

With a capacity of roughly one to two ounces, the cordial glass is small, but very stylish, meaning it'll have a high impact whether it's sitting on the shelf or in your hand. Cordials, the glass's namesake, are sweet liqueurs that come in an array of flavors. From herbal to fruity and everything in between, cordials have a bold presence, so it makes sense to have a smaller serving.

One more nice thing about the cordial glass's smaller stature and bowl shape is that it's perfect for serving miniature cocktails without sacrificing on authenticity. While the perks of cutting cocktail specs in half are pretty obvious, it's also a good way to train yourself to drink a little more leisurely, as you're less likely to gulp down your drink in less time than it took to make it. While sometimes it can just go down that way, the trick to maximum enjoyment is to savor it.

Taller than a tulip, but featuring a snifter-esque stem, the hurricane glass is a real hybrid. Sometimes they're long and tall, like a milkshake glass, while other versions are a bit shorter, similar to pilsner glasses, but whichever proportions you come across, the defining characteristic is their hourglass figure.

Traditionally made with white rum, fresh citrus juices, grenadine, sugar, and passionfruit juice, the New Orleans hurricane drink is so delicious that the glass is worth stocking at your home bar for that fact alone. That goes double if you're into rum. While the cocktail's capacity for customization is practically bottomless (check out this daiquiri-style hurricane recipe), the hurricane glass is just as versatile.

Since it mimics a tall milkshake glass, it's no surprise that the hurricane glass is the go-to pick for a spiked milkshake and any cocktail blended with ice, from margaritas to mudslides. Perfect for serving blended drinks and for pouring a crisp, cool pilsner, the hurricane glass is there for all your bartending needs.

At first glance, the small stemless glass might not seem like an obvious pick, but it's a sturdy, versatile option that works as a stand-in for nearly any other glass, making it a home bar essential Take the old fashioned glass for instance, and even the shooter glass, and you'll notice the small stemless is a worthy substitute for anything you'd serve in the former. Better yet, it's a tried and true alternative to stemware, from martini glasses and coupes to wine and cordial glasses.

This jack-of-all-trades bar glass works well with wines, neat spirits, and down cocktails, but it's also a good stand-in for traditional sake cups. The Japanese rice wine is typically served in petite stemless cups that are often made from porcelain or ceramic, and the size and stature of the small stemless glass is a workable substitution. It makes sense considering the popularity of stemless wine glasses across Europe, and more recently, the United States.